The Tories had swept to power and workers in public services faced a bleak future while bankers raked in cash by the bucketload.

The decade heralded the arrival of personal computers, music lovers swapped the radio for the Walkman which then became the iPod.

The Cold War raged and ended when the Berlin Wall came down and Britain had fought wars in far off lands from the Falklands to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gary Critchley missed all of that.

For Gary has languished behind bars for almost three decades after being jailed for a murder he has steadfastly insisted he did not commit.

Mr Critchley was a 17-year-old punk rocker when he was convicted in 1981 for the killing of Edward McNeill who was found bludgeoned to death in a London squat.

But there were no forensics to tie him to the crime and witness statements blaming someone else were never heard in court.

Despite the trial judge issuing a nine-year sentence tariff, Mr Critchley has gone on to spend another 21 years behind bars, desperately protesting his innocence throughout.

Now new photographs, taken in the past few days and the first real ones taken during his time behind bars, have emerged to reveal Mr Cricthley as he looks today.

Miscarriage of justice campaigners said they were an important development as they battled to secure his freedom and clear his name.

Carol Coombes, of the Justice For Gary Critchley Campaign, said they highlighted the years, and the life, he had lost within the four walls of his jail cell.

She said the photographs amazingly offered one of the few chances the 47-year-old, currently held at HMP Gartree, in Leicestershire, has had to see himself and how he had aged.

“In prison there are no mirrors, just stainless steel squares on the walls but they are scratched and he can’t see himself properly,” she said.

“The pictures are the first chance he’s had to study himself.”

Mr Critchley – his family still lives in Northfield – discovered politics and punk at the age of 14, was recruited into the Young Socialist party and excluded from school for leading ‘pupil-power’ marches.

He moved to London in the early 1980s. But just days later he was found unconscious in the street after apparently falling from the window of his squat. He had suffered a broken back, ankle and wrist and brain damage from a hammer blow to the head.

As police searched the squat they found the body of Mr McNeill.

Despite the victim’s blood being spattered around the room, not a single drop was found on Mr Critchley. No prints were found on the murder weapon either.

The only evidence to link him to the crime was an undone trainer – two sizes too small – found shoved on his left foot. The trainer was covered in blood and had left an imprint at the murder scene. On his other foot was his boot completely clean of blood.

To everyone’s disbelief he was convicted of murder and ‘detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure’, the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence with a recommendation that he should serve ‘no more than nine years’. Yet he remained behind bars for 20 years before gaining a temporary release.

Carol said: “When he went away we were still using pound notes, he had never seen a pound coin.

“He tells how when he first came out, he saw this sign everywhere. He wanted everyone to think he was okay so didn’t ask about it. It turned out to be signs advertising karaoke. It was totally alien to him.”

He had two short spells out of prison but was recalled both times. Two years ago, the Parole Board refused to release him sending into a spiral of depression and he tried to take his own life. He is now in a prison hospital wing while his mental health is assessed.

Mr Critchley, known as prisoner B39969, has now actually served more than three times the recommended sentence.

“Anyone looking at the case will see that it just does not add up,” said Carol. “All we are asking for is it to be re-examined.”

Richard Burden (Lab, Northfield) has taken up the case by asking questions in Parliament.

Mr Critchley, who now considers himself a political prisoner, has now become a renowned and accomplished artist, his works winning awards and exhibited internationally.

He said recently: “I’ve been the victim of a great injustice. I’ve such good family and friends around me that I still feel I have the stamina to win my freedom and prove my innocence.”

His sister Michelle Critchley, from Northfield, said: “To have been kept in jail for 30 years is just unbelievable.”